Carter and Smith
by colxman
Summary: When Clara dies in an accident, the Doctor is heartbroken. Not wanting to hurt anyone else, he becomes John Smith, professor at Liverpool University and, on the surface, completely and utterly human. That is, until he meets 22 year old American photojournalist Aria Carter. That's when everything changes. (Better description inside) (rated T for future lanuage and themes)
1. The Truth Always Comes Out

**A/N: After Clara dies in an accident the Doctor is heartbroken and decides to live his life as a "human". He becomes John Smith, teaches science at a Liverpool University, and mostly keeps to himself. Then he meets Aria Carter, a 23 year old American photojournalist who works for the Liverpool Echo. While he tries to not let anyone into his hearts for fear of hurting anyone, she manages to worm her way into them and after 6 months into the relationship a Moserian crashes into their apartment looking for the Doctor. His cover is blown and suddenly Aria is pulled into a world that her lover had kept hidden from her. **

* * *

><p>Aria wakes up on a Sunday morning to a combination of noises; an alarm blaring, pots clanging, a dog barking and the kettle whistling. She looks at the clock and groans as it reads 8:30, she had stayed up late the night before researching, editing photos, and writing her article that was due on Monday. '<em>Why does John have to be such a morning person' <em>she thinks to herself as she rolls over to go back to sleep. She's just dozing off again when the smell of coffee reaches her nose and she knows that he's purposely doing it to get her out of bed. Trying to ignore him, she pulls the blankets up over her head and smashes her face into the pillow.

It doesn't work, however, and a few minutes later she's following the bittersweet aroma to the kitchen where John is at the stove top cooking bacon, or trying to at least. She yawns and pads over to the coffee pot, pouring herself a cup before leaning against the counter next to the stove. "Morning" she says groggily, taking a sip of her coffee.

He turns and smiles at her, "Good morning, I figured I'd surprise you and cook breakfast." She smiles back at him and reaches up on her tip toes to kiss his cheek; '_Damn height difference'_ she thinks with an internal roll of her eyes. Putting her coffee mug down she jumps up onto the counter and lets her legs dangle down. She yawns again and he gives her a concerned look, "You shouldn't stay up that late."

"Yeah well, I had work that needed to be done. Plus I would get more rest of you didn't wake me up at 8:30 in the damn morning on a _Sunday_." she retorts giving him a glare.

Knowing she wasn't actually angry with him he simply replies, "Well you knew my sleeping habits when you decided to get an apartment with me." and before she could say another word he sticks a piece of slightly burnt bacon in her mouth.

She really glares this time and mumbles a curse word that's garbled by the bacon so it comes out sounding like "Mhmfumsh!"

In response, he laughs and waggles a finger in her face, "Tsk tsk Ms. Aria, don't talk with your mouth-mfshmhm!" His reproach was cut off by a piece of toast being unceremoniously shoved into his open mouth.

Aria sits there with a pleased look on her face, chewing on the bacon while he looks slightly in shock at what just happened. She giggles and then looks around him to the pan on the stove, "Oh by the way, your bacon's burning." With that she hops off the counter and heads towards the table to set up when a bang sounds from downstairs. "What the hell?" she frowns, looking at the floor as if she could see through it to find out what's happening.

Another bang sounds, and then another, and another, and another until the banging is right at their door and then silence. Toast forgotten, John quickly pulls her behind him and pulls out an oddly shaped wand mechanical thing with a green tip. Confusion is apparent on her face as she peeks around her boyfriend's outstretched arm, "John, what the hell is going on?"

He opens his mouth to reply when the door is ripped off its hinges and thrown across the apartment. She's too shocked to even scream because she's busy gaping at the thing that crashed in to their apartment. It was a big, blue, shirtless thing with a face that resembled a bull but the thing that scared her the most was the huge, sharp looking horns that rested atop it's head.

Her grip on the back of John's shirt tightens as she lets out a frightened squeak. In response he pushes her more behind him and raises the strange wand towards the creature. In a low voice which chills her core and sends shivers down her spine he says, "You are not welcome here. Leave now before I change my mind."

The thing lets out what seems to be a laugh and says in a gravelly voice, "I'm here to kill the Doctor, I've traced his time energy back to this place," tilting his horns at them he continues, "I've traced it back to you."

With wide eyes, Aria peeks out from behind John, "No, you must uh, have, the wrong place, there-there's no doctor here. Please just go." It doesn't respond to her demand, only fixes her with an awful smile that curdles her blood and makes her hair stand up on end. "Please?" she whispers again, hoping that it'll just go.

It starts advancing on them, slowly, knowing that they're cornered. John glances at the hallway, then quickly back at the beast, mechanical wand still raised at it. In a split second he throws his arm up and points the strange tool at their ceiling light, directly over the creatures head. A strange sound emits from it and the light explodes, sending sparks and glass showering down onto the creature's head.

It lets out a roar and claws at it's face and the next thing Aria knows is that shes being pulled down the hallway towards the storage closet with the jammed door lock, '_John keeps forgetting to fix that' _she thinks, panic starting to seep into her mind. The strange sounds happens again and the door swings open.

A moment later she is in what is most definitely _not_ a spare storage closet. Her hand is let go of and she is left alone standing at doorway staring at a huge, no, ginormous room with a weird glass column in the middle attached to a console with a multitude of knobs and levers. At a loss for words she turns and runs towards the open doors, out back into the storage closet. There's only about 5 inches of space between storage closet door and the doors to the huge room, so she only has room to whirl around and stare at...a blue police box?

Really starting to panic now she stumbles backwards until her back is against the storage closet door. What seems like hours must have only been a few seconds because the banging starts again and a hand is reaching out and pulling her back towards the strange box and the only thing she manages to say before she faints is: "Its bigger on the inside!"


	2. Ready, Set, Reaction

**A/N: Thank you to all the people who have read my story! I may not be consistent with the updates because I have school and homework and all that crap. I'll try my best though! **

**A/N 2: yeah so its been like 7 months since I updated…..sorry**

* * *

><p><em>Previously: What seems like hours must have only been a few seconds because the banging starts again and a hand is reaching out and pulling her back towards the strange box and the only thing she manages to say before she faints is: "It's bigger on the inside!" <em>

* * *

><p>Aria wakes up in an armchair, a very comfortable, brown leather armchair. She groans and rolls her neck, eyes still closed, '<em>I've had the weirdest dream...a blue bull...weird mechanical wand thing...a room thats bigger on the inside…really need to stop drinking coffee before bed.' <em>She curls up more and tries to doze off again when a realization hits her, '_Wait. We don't __**own **__an armchair.' _

Her eyes fly open and and she scrambles out of the chair. She sees the bigger on the inside room and slowly backs away until her back hits a bookcase. Closing her eyes, she tries to catch her breath and focuses on forcing herself not to panic. Oh she hadn't had a panic attack in a long time, six months at least. '_Six months...just around the time when I met John.'_ She slowly opens her eyes and looks around at the bookcases, the stairs, the armchair, the console, and finally her eyes landed on John.

He's leaning against the console thing and looking at her with a mixture of sympathy and wariness as if waiting to see how she would react. Hands shaking, she holds onto the railing tightly and slowly walks down the stairs. When she reaches the bottom she grips the railing tightly and clears her throat, "Are you...are you an alien?"

He doesn't waver, doesn't try to break it lightly, all he says is, "Yes. I'm a Timelord, from a far away planet called Gallifrey. I'm 2000 years old and my names isn't really John Smith. I'm the Doctor," he pauses and his voice softens a little, "And I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, I just didn't want to hurt you." He steps towards her and she shies away.

Clinging to the railing so tightly her knuckles turn white, she says with a wavering voice, "You lied. You lied to me John-or Doctor, whoever the hell you are, I don't care but you lied to me. You're my boyfriend! We-we live together!" she's shouting at him now and her hand lets go of the railing to pull at her hair, "We were gonna get a pet! And all this time you've been _lying to me!_"

He looks down at his feet before looking back at her, "I did it to protect you. If I thought you'd be safe then I would have told you-"

He's cut of when a hand whips out and hits his cheek with a resounding _THWACK! _He's then assaulted by fists on his chest, each hit punctuating the words she's saying. "You. Lied. To. Me. You. Selfish. Ignorant. Bastard!"

Out of breath she steps back, tears welling in her eyes. He stands there, in shock for a second before finally saying, "I'm so so sorry. Do you want me to drop you off at your parents? A friends?"

Slowly moving her eyes from him to the console to the ceiling and then back to him, she shakes her head. "No. No. I. I need to adjust but. I. I need you in my life. I want you in my life. And everything that comes with you," she waves her hand in the air, gesturing to all of the TARDIS. "Including all of this."

He gives a tiny wavering smile, and opens his arms slightly-he's never been a hugging person but for her he'll make an exception in a heart beat. She steps forward, something like fear flickering in her eyes and it stabs him in his heart but he keeps his arms where they are. He lets out a soft sigh of relief when she closes the gap and wraps her arms around his waist. He pulls her close, hearts aching at the confusion and hurt she feels and how he wishes he could take it all away.

Like so many times she's done before, she nuzzles into his chest, breathing in his scent and pretends for a second that everything is normal. After a minute or so, she opens her eyes, the fantasy fading and pulls away, a small grin on her face. "So...are you going to show me around this place, or what?"

He blinks at her and she freezes, thinking she said the wrong thing, but then his face splits into a wide grin and he sounds almost giddy when he says "Yes! I'd love too. C'mon," he takes her hand and starts pulling her down a corridor, "There's so much to see, you know, because there are an infinite number of rooms, or actually not really but I suppose there could be, but anyway there _are_ a lot of them, and some of them I've never seen before so I don't really know why they're there but the TARDIS has a mind of her own. Speaking of that, she actually became human once, oh yeah that was weird but it's a fun story to tell. I can't wait to tell you about all of the adventures-oh! Maybe we can go on adventures of our own! I can take you wherever you'd like to go, including the past and the future and other worlds-"

He's cut off by Aria stretching up and kissing his cheek, "You can tell me all about it later. For now, just show me your favorite rooms, remember I just got introduced to all this." she gives him a smile, and squeezes his hand. He returns the smile and continues walking but at a slower pace, "My favorite rooms? Welllll.." She just smiles and shakes her head in amusement as he rambles on.


End file.
